So Long, Marianne.

Will’s POV:

I was dead.

I had to be dead.

There was no other explanation for why I couldn’t move or open my eyes and why it felt like someone was stabbing me in the hip. My entire body felt heavy and I could barely think. I heard voices, concerned voices that weren’t the obnoxious screeching of Marianne, next to me.

“…seemed to be stuck in the 1800s! The musket ball was easy to get out. He’s lost a lot of blood, though, and it seems to be infected.”

“'It seems'? Are you going to do anything about it?”

“I’m sorry but there are hundreds of other –”

I was feeling disoriented, my head pounding so hard I felt like it was going to explode. I fell into the blackness once again, but not for long.

“…phoned his mother and she’s not even home! Took a vacation with her new husband. Said to bring him to a family friend’s house. Strange, you’d assume she’d be jumping on the next train! Well anyway, he’s all fit for the ride later. New York’s one of the first stops. He seems to be coming to anyway.”

I was growing more and more confused. My mother hadn’t remarried! Why didn’t she tell me? And where would I being staying until she gets back? And where was I? I couldn’t take the train from Germany to New York! I groaned and opened my eyes. The room was blindingly white and the artificial lights made my eyes burn. I threw my hands over my eyes and groaned again.

“Ahhh, see? I have to move on now, he’ll be fine.”

I rolled over on whatever thing I was lying on. I heard the sound of someone sitting down into a chair.

“Will?”

I moved one hand off one eye and looked at who was speaking.

“Ronnie?” I asked, my brain not working properly to register who was speaking to me.

“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “Finally up I see?”

I shoved myself further into the pillows, my head pounding so hard I could barely focus. “What do you mean ‘finally’?”

“Will do you even know where you are right now?” Ronnie laughed. I pulled the pillow over my face.

“Germany?” Ronnie laughed again. “Do you mean – We’re not - ?”

“You were out the entire plane ride back! I didn’t even know that could happen unless you’re in a coma. I thought you died for sure but the other guys kept saying you were gunna make it. Which you did!”

“I’m home?” I asked incredulously.

“Well not yet. We’re catching the train back to New York later.”

“Oh ok,” I turned over onto my other side. I felt Ronnie slap me on the shoulder before I passed out again.

I was falling in and out of consciousness. I vaguely felt someone trying to get me to wake up, but it was like my mind wasn’t attached to my body. The person finally gave up and just pulled me out of the bed and into something hard. My head lolled back onto the headrest thing. The person was moving me and I barely heard the calls of “goodbye!” and “bye sir!” from the people in lower ranks.

My life was flashing before my eyes. Isn’t that what happened when you were dying? My father died when I was five; I didn’t remember it that well, other than my mother all in black looking an angel, crying hysterically. I wasn’t an only child, I had an older brother Steve who moved to California the day he turned 18. He’d be 30 this year, if he was still alive. My mother never remarried. Until now, apparently I thought wryly. I met Marianne when I was 7 and she was 5 and I pushed her off the swings. She pushed me back and I told her she “was alright for a girl” and that “I’d marry her one day.”

I wanted to snort at that, but my head was about to fall off from the pain, stopping all thought. The pain in my hip was sending white hot pain up and down my side. Off and on someone would shove a cup of water down my throat and I’d struggle to swallow it until I just gave up on thinking and trying to stay awake.